HENANA

Late 6th-century Syriac theologian; d. Nisibis (Nusaybin, Turkey), c. 610. A native of Adiabene, Henana studied in the school of Nisibis under Abraham, successor to Narses, and became director of the school in 572, a position he held until his death in spite of violent opposition. Support from rulers of Nisibis and a large following of disciples enabled him to lead a theological movement that endeavored to abandon nestorianism for Chalcedonian orthodoxy in the Persian Church. He rejected the authority of theodore of mopsuestia, considered an infallible interpreter of Scripture by the Persian Church, and followed john chrysostom as a guide in his scriptural exegesis. He accepted the hypostatic union of the two natures in Christ and, as a consequence, the communication of idioms and theotokos. He likewise accepted the doctrine of original sin as an explanation of human concupiscence and was consequently accused of Chaldaism or fatalism. He was also considered an Origenist; there is little evidence to support this charge, although the accusation that he denied the resurrection of the body and accepted the Origenistic teaching on the apocatastasis and possibly astral influence on human events led to the charge of fatalism.

Henana is known to have produced commentaries on Genesis, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, the lesser Prophets, Mark, and the Epistles of St. Paul; and to have written tracts on the creed, on the Friday after Pentecost called the Golden Friday, and the so-called Fast of the Ninivites. Only fragments of his works have been preserved.

Bibliography: x. ducros, Catholicisme 5:597–598. a. baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (Bonn 1922) 127. j. b. chabot, Littérature syriaque (Paris 1935) 88–89. r. duval, La Littérature syriaque (3d ed. Paris 1907) 348–349. j. labourt, Le Christianisme dans l'empire perse (Paris 1904) 215–217; 269–280.

[d. m. poshek]